Moonlight Dreaming
by suerum
Summary: A romantic interlude between Elizabeth Webber and Ewen Keenan.
1. Exorcising Old Demons

Exorcising Old Demons

Elizabeth stood before the antique Cheval mirror which had once belonged to her mother and to her mother before that. It was one of the few such possessions Elizabeth had inherited and she treasured it. As she stared pensively at her reflection, Elizabeth often wondered if there could possibly be some mystic bond between two women, so tightly bound by blood and yet, so completely separated by her mother's own selfish choice to live unencumbered by the needs of her children. If it were somehow possible that this shared heirloom might transcend the dictates of destiny and allow them to each be simultaneously present, one but a mere ghost image of the other. Yet, tonight, for once, Elizabeth wasn't focused on the past, on what might have been but wasn't, on missing mothers and dead sons. Instead tonight was something so unique in her current life that she still hadn't quite processed the sensation. Tonight was all about Elizabeth Webber and no one else. Tonight she had a date.

It wasn't a simple road to get to this evening. Elizabeth and Ewen had danced around one another for months but their increasing attraction was masked both by Ewen's professionalism, as her sometimes psychiatrist, and Elizabeth's ongoing grief over Jake's death. Yet, everything between them started to alter when Kate Howard, in the guise of her alter ego, Connie Falconeri, hit Ewen over the head with a paperweight, bringing their impromptu session to an abrupt close. After anxiously awaiting news of the outcome of Ewen's surgery, Elizabeth felt an ineffable surge of relief when she was informed that Ewen had finally regained consciousness. That much anticipated happy announcement was almost immediately followed by an unexpected quicksilver sensation of joy upon hearing that Ewen particularly wanted to see her.

"Stat," head nurse, Epiphany Johnson, had appended to her half-communiqué, half-order, all Epiphany method of not so gently nudging those she cared about (and supervised) in the direction they needed to be moving but were usually too pigheaded to see for themselves. "Honestly," she sighed to herself while watching the younger nurse dash down the hallway to the intensive care room where the wounded psychiatrist wanly lay in his hospital bed. With his tousled hair and white bandage, Ewen resembled an eighteenth century poet awaiting his lady fair, a role which Epiphany was pretty damned sure Elizabeth was more than willing to play. "I swear, they get younger and more addle-pated every year." Or maybe it was just that Epiphany herself was getting older and more cynical. Yet, since she preferred the first characterization to the second, that was the one in which she was choosing to believe. "You there!" Recalled to her managerial duties, and seeing an opportunity to vent her spleen, Epiphany yelled at a hapless custodian mopping the floor by the elevator doors, "Didn't your mother ever show you the proper way to use a mop?"

"You're awake," Elizabeth burbled happily as she unceremoniously burst into Ewen's room, where she was not in the least startled to find Patrick standing by the bed checking his patient's vitals and pupillary reflexes.

"That I am," Ewen responded with a weak smile which was only a pale imitation of his usual wide open grin whenever he caught sight of Elizabeth. "I can assure you, Dr. Drake, that my vision is perfect." He added, looking up at the neurosurgeon with a mischievous glint in his green eyes, "It would appear that Nurse Webber has grown even lovelier since my unfortunate encounter with a paperweight."

Patrick gave a dry chuckle of agreement, the closest he could come to mimicking humor these days. He looked across the room at Elizabeth, who stood uncertainly by the door, her face flushed with a pink tinge of embarrassment. "I can't argue with you about that, Dr. Keenan," he answered equably, "You're doing very well and, assuming you follow my instructions and don't overdo things, you ought to be out of the ICU in a day or so and well on your way to a full recovery." Patrick glanced down at the handheld digital device upon which he had been recording notes about Ewen's condition and gave a satisfied nod of his head before saying, "I need to complete my rounds. So, I shall leave you in the more than capable hands of Nurse Webber."

Elizabeth stared intently up at Patrick as he passed her by. She carefully scrutinized his face in an attempt to read his mood, to try and bore even deeper past the brittle outward shell of medical competency to his inner self, to the fragile and damaged heart and soul contained within. "How are you?" She asked him with quiet compassion.

"I'm good," Patrick said, his lips moving upward in a brief smile, a facial construct that appeared to be more a result of muscle memory rather than actual feeling.

Elizabeth sighed, her worried eyes followed the plodding progress of his lanky, stork-like figure as it moved away from her down the hall. She, better than anyone, knew there really was no remedy for Patrick's broken spirit beyond the impartial effects of time, but it didn't keep her from wanting to try.

"Hey, I thought you came to visit me, not moon over my neurosurgeon," the familiar Australian accent broke through her morose thoughts.

"I don't moon over anyone," Elizabeth shot back as she moved briskly over to Ewen's bedside and occupied herself with the redundant business of checking all the vital signs which Patrick had recorded mere moments ago.

Ewen reached up and captured her wrist as she was starting to place a thermometer probe into his mouth. His grip wasn't especially strong but Elizabeth stilled her hand and patiently waited to hear what he might say. "He's getting through it now because of Emma and people like you who show him how much he matters to them." Ewen's eyes met hers and again, despite the intensity of his words, Elizabeth felt a fluttery sensation deep in her stomach, a sensation which only ever seemed to occur around the curly-haired psychiatrist. "That's a more valuable way of helping than you can even know. It bridges the gap between his wanting to live for others and his wanting to live for himself."

Gently, without acknowledging his observation, Elizabeth pulled her hand free from Ewen's grasp and completed her aborted mission of getting the thermometer into his mouth. He lay quietly, staring up at Elizabeth while she averted her eyes and busied herself pushing buttons on the vital signs monitor next to his bed. When a quick electronic beep indicated to her that Ewen's temperature had registered, Elizabeth reached over and removed the thermometer from his mouth.

"Normal," Elizabeth said brightly, "Patrick's right, everything looks good and you are definitely on the road to recovery."

Ewen just continued to stare at her steadily, his gaze fixed on Elizabeth's face causing her to blush once more. "What?" She erupted, her eyes flashing as she finally matched him stare for stare, "Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

"You can admit the truth you know," was the psychiatrist's cryptic answer.

Elizabeth was clearly becoming even more upset as she stood over the hospital bed. Her fists were planted on her hips as she attempted to make herself appear a formidable figure, someone like Epiphany, who had even tamed the infamous Jason Morgan when he was a patient under her less than tender care.

"What do you mean the truth?" She indignantly demanded, "What on earth do you think I am lying to you about?"

For a brief moment, Elizabeth paused and considered the fact that Ewen was just recovering from a brain injury and possibly wasn't actually as normal as he appeared to be. Maybe he was suffering from some sort of delusion or hallucination or paranoia, she couldn't say which but perhaps she shouldn't upset him any further. Yet, before Elizabeth could change her tack and began to utter some soothing and consoling phrases which would manage to calm Ewen down long enough for her to find him some psychiatric help, notwithstanding the irony inherent in that concept, Ewen forestalled her by speaking first.

"I mean hiding the truth from yourself," Ewen shot back, "The truth being that everything Patrick is going through right now reminds you of Jake."

Elizabeth gave a sharp indrawn whoosh of breath as Ewen's harsh words washed over her creating familiar shards of glass-edged pain to pierce her scarred heart and causing it to weep fresh blood. "How dare you!" She said, suddenly panting as though she had just run a race, "How dare you talk about him…about how I feel…" Elizabeth couldn't say a single word more because suddenly she was nothing internally but a fully consuming wail of sorrow tuned to a one syllable note which resonated within every fiber of her body, echoing over and over again to a solitary word-Jake.

Ewen struggled to reach for her, to offer her comfort but Elizabeth stepped back from the bed. She closed her eyes in a vain attempt to reclaim some shred of her professional self and to not cry in front of Ewen, in front of a patient, but failed miserably as tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Jake…" the word was wrenched out of her as an agonized moan representing all the grief she had so carefully buried under her need to be strong for Cameron and Aidan, to be the only parent they could rely upon, while her own guilt, her own mourning, her own need for expiation went unmet and unacknowledged for over a year.

Strong arms wrapped around Elizabeth and shepherded her unresisting body through unmindful space. She neither knew nor cared where she was being led. She was shaking and weeping uncontrollably. Her whole body vibrated with unexpressed anguish for a little blonde-haired boy, with sparkling blue eyes and a fearless nature, who would never have the chance to go to kindergarten or graduate from high school or get married or have his own son.

"I ki…ll…ed h…im." The words were wrenched out of Elizabeth in a disjointed stutter as she bluntly said what she had thought within the first instance the accusing panel of empty black space, where there should have been the wooden solidity of a closed door, gaped widely in censorious accusation at her. "I didn't watch out for him and he died…because of me." The words were spoken in gasped breaths between ragged sobs but they rang with a faith based conviction.

Ewen held her tightly, stroking Elizabeth's hair and rocking her as they sat side by side on his hospital bed. Elizabeth had no sense of her surroundings, she was too caught up in the torrent of self-abasement and loathing erupting from her like noxious fumes from an erupting volcano. Ewen didn't speak, neither to draw forth more of her inner turmoil nor to try and console her. Instead, he simply comforted with his solid presence and complete lack of judgment.

Unmarked by either, time passed until finally Elizabeth lacked the strength to continue crying. Her eyes were red from the passage of tears and her throat sore from grief-stricken weeping. Slowly, Elizabeth's body stopped shuddering and eventually she lay quiescent in the shelter of Ewen's protective embrace. Still, he didn't speak but simply continued to wordlessly hold her. Ewen's chin rested on the crown of Elizabeth's head as she instinctively snuggled into him. Her face was buried against his left shoulder while her arms slowly moved of their own volition to wrap around his back and anchor herself more securely against his reassuring warmth.

More time stretched out and the hospital room was silent beyond the intermittent hisses, chirps and beeps exuded by the medical machinery as it conducted its impersonal survey of the designated health parameters belonging to whichever patient it was currently monitoring. Eventually, it was Ewen who broke the fragile quiet. Gently, he pushed away from a resisting Elizabeth who attempted to stay stubbornly nestled within the sanctuary of his chest, safely tucked away from the ongoing problems of life which would beset her once again when she as much as raised her head or opened her eyes.

Ewen was having none of it, he tilted up her recalcitrant chin and said sharply, "Elizabeth, look at me!"

Elizabeth tried to drag her head away from his firm grip but it wasn't possible and so, she resentfully opened her eyes and looked up at him. Though her face was pale and her cheeks tear stained, her eyes somehow remained an amazing luminous blue which Ewen had never been able to descriptively qualify beyond assigning the color as belonging uniquely to Elizabeth.

"That's better," Ewen said compassionately, "I need to ask you a question and you must answer it honestly, all right?"

Elizabeth stared uncertainly at Ewen and unconsciously bit her lip as she considered his request, "All right," she said, her voice sounding small and lost, "I'll try."

Ewen nodded and released Elizabeth's chin, satisfied that he now had her cooperation. "When you were growing up did you or Steven ever do something silly or dangerous which occurred when either of your parents was home with you?"

The question was innocuous, asked in a simple conversational tone, and Elizabeth responded easily, "Sure, one time, when Steven was about ten and I was about seven, we were playing out on the street. Steven was riding his bike and I begged him to give me a ride on the handlebars which was something that we were expressly forbidden to do and I fell off and there was a car coming and oh…" Elizabeth stopped speaking and sent Ewen a furious glare, "You tricked me!" She said hotly, "That wasn't fair!"

Ewen responded to her accusation with a sharp shake of his bandaged head and then winced as a pained expression crossed his features, "Ow," he said, "That hurts!" Ewen extended a tentative hand toward the back of his skull as though to feel the injury and then, thinking the better of his decision, let it drop limply by his side.

"You just had brain surgery," Elizabeth chided Ewen. She reached for the chart and scanned the medication orders, "You need to be careful not to exert yourself or you run the risk of aggravating your condition. I'll get you some medicine for the pain."

Ewen fell back upon his pillows too exhausted to argue. When Elizabeth returned a few moments later, he managed to sit shakily up with her help and take the pills she offered him without demur. When he was once more recumbent upon the bed, Ewen reached up for Elizabeth's hand. Recognizing that Ewen simply desired the solace of another human's touch, Elizabeth tenderly clasped his hand in her own.

"Get some sleep," she said softly, "You'll feel better when you wake up."

"Go out to dinner with me," Ewen mumbled sleepily, his eyes closed and his hand lax in hers.

Elizabeth smiled, her eyes expressing a dark elation that she was glad no one else could see, "Ask me sometime when you're not talking in your sleep."

For several days after their emotionally charged encounter, Elizabeth didn't see Ewen because she wasn't on the shift roster. She was busy spending her all too rare days off with Cameron and Aidan since Cameron's school was out for the summer. So, Elizabeth took both boys on a series of day trips to the zoo, the natural history museum and a visiting carnival. Even though she loved every precious minute spent with her sons, she couldn't help but think about Ewen in the infrequent spaces where she wasn't being someone's mommy, where she was just purely Elizabeth.

Elizabeth turned Ewen's brief parable over and over in her mind, examining it from every angle as she tried to determine if it truly applied to her situation. The insinuations of the idea were so earthshaking that her very thoughts shied away from the fundamental implication that what had happened to Jake was a straightforward accident. Such an uncomplicated conclusion simultaneously tempted and repulsed Elizabeth because it offered the undeniable allure of a possibility of an end to her self-abnegation by potentially enabling her to forgive herself.

Yet, the other side of the acceptance of such a belief was the almost insupportable realization that all occurrences, all life, merely depend upon the slenderest threads of fate. For instance, if Elizabeth had fallen beneath that long-ago car's tires then she would most likely have died, have, in that moment, like Jake, ceased to exist. Then it would have been her parents and Steven who would have suffered from the intolerable combination of grief and guilt which Elizabeth now daily endured. An even worse outcome, to such a scenario, was the startling awareness that Cameron, Aidan, and even Jake himself, would never have been born which unfathomable conceit was the most intolerable of all to Elizabeth.

The night before she was scheduled to return to work, Elizabeth sat on the cushioned window seat of her upstairs bedroom and stared with blind eyes upon the late night quietude of the suburban street. She wasn't seeing the street as it was now, dark and empty, but as it was that night more than a year ago when Jake had darted out in front of Luke's car.

If Elizabeth had come home earlier or later, if she had not checked the mail, if she had ascertained where all her sons were-an endless arrays of ifs flashed across her mind's eye in rapid succession. No matter how hard she tried to grasp the events of that evening, tried to twist them into some other shape, some other formula that would mean Jake would emerge unscathed, with his spiky blonde hair and irrepressible grin intact, Elizabeth found she was incapable of conjuring up such an outcome, no matter how desirable. Layered over every hopeful picture was a competing vision of a young Elizabeth Webber falling from the handlebars of her older brother's bicycle and almost instantly being crushed into oblivion.

Finally, after an indeterminate time sitting lost in her fruitless trance of trying to rewrite and recreate history, Elizabeth fiercely shook her head. "Enough," she whispered into the sleep-quiet of the house, "I'm stopping this now. I owe it to Cam and Aidan to not make Jake an accusing ghost who sits down with us at every meal." Silence slowly trickled back into the room, its absoluteness only marginally indented by the almost imperceptible ticking of a carriage clock sitting on the mantelpiece. Elizabeth's voice issued forth once more, a harsh sound, strained and tear-choked, "I forgive myself," she said, "I'm sorry Jakey but I have to let you go. I'll always love you, but not like this, it isn't right…for either of us."

When Elizabeth finally dried her tears and crept into bed, succumbing to an all too brief slumber before waking up to the incessant demands of motherhood and a career, she slept without dreaming.


	2. The Sticking Point

The Sticking Point

"Have dinner with me," Ewen smiled up happily at Elizabeth from his wheelchair as she escorted him back to his room after his physical therapy session.

"I don't date patients," she responded with mock severity as they passed an impassive Epiphany Johnson observing them from the nursing station.

"I'll be working with my own patients soon enough," Ewen responded cheerfully, entirely undaunted by Elizabeth's answer since it was most definitely not an out and out rejection, "They're releasing me in a day or two."

"That's wonderful, Ewen!" Elizabeth replied with unfeigned pleasure, putting on the brakes of the wheelchair and bending down to assist him back into bed.

"I'll take it from here, Nurse Webber," a familiar voice spoke from the door, "You have plenty of other patients to attend to. I'll deal with Dr. Keenan myself."

Elizabeth gave Ewen a small complicit smile of sympathy before she turned toward Epiphany, pushing the empty wheelchair in front of her, "Of course, Nurse Johnson," she replied demurely.

As the door swung resolutely shut behind Elizabeth, she could hear the charge nurse saying, "Well, Dr. Keenan this looks like your lucky day. You appear to be scheduled for a sponge bath and that is something I am very adept at administering to my patients. Don't worry this won't hurt a bit…" Elizabeth couldn't help it, she giggled.

Patrick was true to his word and, being fully satisfied with Ewen's recovery from his head injury and the resultant surgery, actually allowed his colleague to leave the hospital a full day before his officially scheduled release. "Now that doesn't mean you're to do anything too strenuous or that you can return to work before I give you a final checkup."

Patrick's cautionary words fell on upon deaf ears as he wheeled Ewen toward the tenth floor elevators. His soon to be discharged patient was too distracted by searching for Elizabeth at the nurse's station to listen to Patrick, but Ewen's face clouded over as he slowly realized that Elizabeth was not eagerly waiting to see him off home for his recuperation.

Rather than Elizabeth, Epiphany Johnson stood before Ewen and Patrick creating a formidable barricade between the two men and the elevator doors. She towered imposingly over Ewen, bringing back undesired recollections of his recent sponge bath.

"I know it's not me you want to see, Dr. Keenan," Epiphany's voice was expressionless as she stared down at him but then unexpectedly she smiled. The unnatural grin showcased seemingly endless rows of bright, sharp teeth which made Ewen suddenly think of darkly dangerous and sinuous shapes floating right below the surface of the innocent blue ocean with just their dorsal fins showing. "Still, Nurse Webber did ask me to pass a message onto you," the smile widened spitefully.

"What might that be?" Ewen squeaked in response.

Ewen tried to manfully ignore his body's sudden activation of his flight and fight reflex. He was pathetically proud that his only overtly physical response to Epiphany's looming presence as she bent over him, temporarily blocking out the overhead lights, was the way his hands reflexively clenched the armrests of the wheelchair, his knuckles white with tension.

Epiphany noticed though, she always noticed. She chuckled darkly as she placed her mouth close enough to his cheek that he could feel her warm breath and whispered in Ewen's ear, "Ask me again when you're not in a wheelchair."

Ewen blushed with shame as Epiphany, her laughter no longer contained to mere sniggers, but now coming out in resounding chortles of amusement that reverberated up and down the tenth floor hallways, spun the miserable doctor around and aimed his wheelchair toward the elevator doors. By the time the doors had opened and Ewen was sitting safely ensconced within the car and facing out at the charge nurse and a puzzled Patrick Drake, Epiphany had once more composed her features into a semblance of professionalism, although there was still a faint twinkle of amusement to be discerned within the depths of her dark eyes,

"We'll see you when you get back from your recuperation, Doctor Keenan," Epiphany said formally as she reached into the elevator and punched the lobby button.

Three weeks later, Ewen was officially back on rotation cleared by a frenetic Patrick Drake, whose disheveled attire and darting eyes, made Ewen wonder if he might unexpectedly be encountering his first patient. Yet, since psychiatrists weren't used car salesman, he couldn't, in good conscience, make a pitch to Patrick about consulting him. Still, Ewen couldn't help toying with some method of subtly urging Patrick to come and see Ewen by perhaps mentioning that he had a returning to practice special, and the neurologist could have six sessions for the price of one, all of which would be covered by the most excellent insurance plan put in place by the General Hospital Board of Directors.

Giving himself a mental shake, and ridding his brain of the impracticality of such an absurd offer, Ewen instead settled for a brief manly, "You all right, Patrick?" accompanied by the placement of an empathetic hand on the other doctor's white lab coat.

Patrick gave a sharp, accusatory jerk of his head as he moved away from Ewen's reach and any consolation he might endeavor to offer. "Fine," he said his dark, fatigued eyes flashing with irritation, "This is your examination, Doctor, to see if you're fit to return to duty, not an unwanted psychiatric consultation."

Ewen shrugged and raised his hands in a mollifying gesture, he'd tried.

It wasn't until the end of his second day back at General Hospital that Ewen finally saw Elizabeth. He spent his first day on duty discreetly searching for her around the hospital until he inadvertently backed up into Epiphany who had silently walked up behind him.

Epiphany gave an outraged screech of pain as Ewen clumsily stepped on her left foot. "I swear," she said, with a snort of contempt, as she bent over and awkwardly massaged the injured appendage, "It's a good thing that I'm not the object of your rather dubious affections because you wouldn't have a hope in…well, let's just say I'd rather go out with a jackass than you!"

Epiphany straightened up with a groan of pain and fixed the psychiatrist with her patented piercing glare. Ewen suddenly discovered that he was no more immune to the effects of that infamous stare than any callow intern or trembling first year nursing student. He found himself involuntarily backing away from the imposing nursing supervisor until he was abruptly blocked by the solid weight of the floor desk nudging him painfully in the kidneys.

Ewen raised his hands in a palms out gesture of surrender, hoarsely eking out the word, "Sorry," along with an accompanying apologetic gesture toward the nurse's injured foot.

Epiphany frowned irritably at him and then suddenly, giving a heartfelt sigh of exasperation, she stepped back from Ewen so as to permit him to move away from the desk. Rubbing his lower back, Ewen looked surreptitiously around the floor to see if their little contretemps had garnered much public attention. He realized with a sinking heart that all the studiously averted faces and low hum of conversation going on around them meant that each and every mortifying moment of his encounter with Epiphany had been carefully cataloged.

His face crimson with embarrassment, Ewen turned back to Epiphany and spoke with a collected courtesy, "Nurse Johnson, I do indeed apologize for stepping on your foot" Yet, it was now Ewen who began to move indignantly toward Epiphany as he grew more aggrieved with her unfair treatment of him. Without conscious volition, Ewen held up his right index finger in a classic declamatory position, "Still, that is what you get when you sneak up behind people who aren't doing anything untoward…"

Ewen's voice trailed off as he belatedly realized that Epiphany wasn't backing away from him as he had previously done from her. He uneasily noticed that her head was tilted at a peculiar angle and that her eyes were glinting oddly. For some inexplicable reason, a scene from some old black and white movie about a matador popped unbidden into Ewen's mind. He thought the bull might have looked at the hero in an eerily similar manner right before it charged.

"Well, anyway, no real harm done." Ewen nodded his head in a quick affirmation of his own decisiveness.

The psychiatrist yanked down on his white medical coat in an endeavor to straighten out the crumpled fabric from its unexpected encounter with the nurse's desk along with trying to restore his equally crumpled self-esteem. That symbolic face-saving action was immediately followed by a smart about turn as Ewen determinedly headed for the elevator doors in a desperate attempt to escape the clutches of the head nurse.

Ewen was just reaching out to press the down button, while contemplating turning his ignominious retreat into a useful errand, such as going to the cafeteria and getting a restorative cup of coffee, when Epiphany's authoritative voice caused him to freeze in place. "Dr. Keenan, I know exactly what you were doing skulking around the nurse's desk."

Ewen narrowed his eyes in impotent frustration as the elevator doors opened before him and he realized how nearly he had escaped from Epiphany with some shreds of his dignity intact. Yet, unable to help himself, he swung around and said crossly, "I most certainly wasn't skulking, I don't skulk!"

Unmoved, Epiphany just stared at him, her arms crossed over her chest, patiently waiting until Ewen's escape route vanished with a hermetic snick of sound. "Well whatever word you want to use to describe someone who furtively walks by the nurse's station a multitude of times a day is what you were doing, and I know why."

Ewen rolled his shoulders and twisted his neck in an effort to release the tension in his muscles resulting from the showdown with the charge nurse, but finally he found he couldn't prevent the sulky release of a single syllable, "Why?"

Epiphany's teeth were showcased in a wide and happy grin that would have made a shark envious, "You were searching for Nurse Webber but you're not going to find her."

Irked both by how easily his subterfuge had been first exposed and then challenged by Epiphany's absolute denial of his hopes, Ewen spoke defiantly, "There is nothing wrong with my looking for a colleague. If I wish to find Nurse Webber and discuss-well, anything actually, that is our business and not yours, Nurse Johnson."

"Well," Epiphany drawled as she appeared to consider his response, "That's really only true if it's about a patient, Dr. Keenan, and even then, as charge nurse, I need to know everything my nurses know. Still, you're not going to find Nurse Webber."

Her easy assurance that his task was impossible stung Ewen's pride so that he spat out, "Just watch me!" With a melodramatic spin he turned around and jabbed the innocent down button several times in rapid succession.

Just as the elevator doors once more swept open and Ewen's left foot was poised to step into the car, Epiphany's calm voice spoke behind him, "You're not going to find Nurse Webber because she's not in the hospital. It's her day off."

During Ewen's second day back on duty, he wisely opted to stay in his office and out of Epiphany's way. Ewen found himself still cringing internally whenever he envisioned the head nurse's smile, mocking him from behind his back, as he walked blindly into the elevator car with no fixed destination in mind. His single goal had been to quit the tenth floor and to attempt to put behind him the scene of his all too public humiliation.

Despite his inner chagrin, Ewen was surprised to discover that his day was actually productive. While Ewen wasn't planning on seeing patients until the following week, when he would have his session schedule arranged, he managed to spend the time productively in catching up on both his own personal paperwork as well as updating patient files. When he looked up from a report he was writing, Ewen was quite surprised to discover that it was late afternoon. The day had flown by and he felt extremely accomplished.

Yawning, Ewen stood up from his desk chair and stretched in an attempt to remove the kinks from his stiff back, the unpleasant result of sitting in one position for far too long. Ewen removed his professional lab jacket and switched it for the tweed sports coat hanging on the coat rack in the corner of the office, near his desk. With a sigh of relief he turned off the desk lamp and exited the now dimly lit room. Ewen rapidly blinked his tired eyes as they tried to adjust to the overly bright glare of the fluorescent lights in the hospital corridor.

Ewen paused and peered cautiously around the corner wall of the hallway leading to his office. He anxiously scanned the area of the tenth floor central hub for any sign of the presence of the intimidating Nurse Johnson. When he was convinced the coast was clear, Ewen dashed across the large open space feeling as exposed as a timid gazelle trying to dart through the grass of the African Savanna without arousing the unwanted interest of a predator.

With an unfeigned sigh of relief, Ewen reached over to push the down button belonging to his familiar ally, the elevator. Yet, before he could tap the opaque sphere, the doors opened and he found himself face to face with Elizabeth Webber.

"It's you." Ewen heard himself say and was immediately horrified by the inanity of his remark.

Elizabeth looked momentarily startled to see Ewen standing before her but then her lovely heart-shaped face lit up and she smiled in genuine happiness. "Ewen, you're back at work. I'm so glad to see that you're fully recovered!"

Ewen stepped back, allowing Elizabeth to move out of the elevator car. "You are completely better, right?" She asked him suspiciously as she stared searchingly into his eyes, "You don't have any headaches or nausea or…" Elizabeth flushed as Ewen laughed out loud in response to the instinctive donning of her professional demeanor. "Well, forgive me for being concerned," she snapped at him. Clearly offended, Elizabeth stalked toward the nurse's desk, her arms full of the patient files she had gone to retrieve on another floor.

"Elizabeth," Ewen moved rapidly in front of her, blocking her access to the nurse's desk. Elizabeth attempted to step around him but he again moved to prevent her. Though Ewen's eyes were twinkling, the planes of his face were now suitably arranged in a more somber expression, "It's just that for a moment there you sounded more like my neurologist rather than…well, I certainly don't think of you as my neurologist."

"I'm sorry if I overstepped, Doctor," Elizabeth spoke glacially without meeting Ewen's eyes as she made a quick feint around him and secured herself behind the raised floor of the nurse's desk. "Now if you'll excuse me I have lots of work to do."

Ewen didn't budge and Elizabeth refused to raise her head from the pile of files she appeared to be steadfastly perusing. For several moments it looked like they would remain in their own private version of a Mexican standoff for an indeterminate amount of time if an irritated voice hadn't sounded from the direction of stairs.

"What is going on here? Why are you badgering my nurse, Dr. Keenan and Nurse Webber aren't you supposed to be entering the data from those files rather than blankly staring at them like a lovesick calf?"

Both Ewen and Elizabeth jumped guiltily and looked back at a clearly displeased Nurse Johnson advancing upon them. "Yes, of course, Nurse Johnson, I'll get started right away," Elizabeth said breathlessly as she blindly turned toward the nearest computer monitor.

Ewen looked at Epiphany and opened his mouth in an attempt to speak, whether to challenge or placate the charge nurse, neither would ever know. Instead, he turned away, his shoulders slumped in ignominious defeat, and headed for his only ally, the elevator.

With a disgusted snort, Epiphany commanded Ewen, "Hold it right there, Dr. Keenan. Isn't there something you were planning to ask Nurse Webber when she returned to the hospital?" Her tone was innocuous and smooth and Ewen felt himself unwillingly turning around to look into a set of dark, flat eyes that made him think of a cobra right before it strikes.

"Was I?" He asked, looking hopelessly over at Elizabeth who had switched from staring intently at patient files to staring, just as intently, at a computer screen.

"Let's see, how exactly did it go?" Epiphany tipped her head back and stared up at the acoustic tiles of the ceiling as though seeking inspiration, while her right foot, encased in a bright pink sneaker, tapped a metronome beat on the floor. "First I think it was, that you couldn't be asleep," she paused and indiscriminately divided a malicious grin between both Elizabeth and Ewen, who were each staring at her in horrified fascination, "Then it was that you couldn't be a patient at General Hospital." Now Epiphany turned and looked innocently at Elizabeth, the younger woman's face was flushed but she steadily met the head nurse's gaze. "And then it was, correct me if I have this wrong, Nurse Webber," the smile was back dark and delighted, "That you couldn't be in a wheelchair."

There was silence in the nurse's hub. The only blessing that Ewen could manage to count was that, unlike his showdown the previous day with Epiphany, today the area was all but deserted, except for a trio of laboratory technicians over in the seating area heatedly arguing about the merits of some new science fiction film.

"Have I missed anything?" Epiphany asked the two of them impartially, "Wasn't that it, he couldn't be asleep, a patient or in a wheelchair? Well, look at him, girl," she gestured impatiently toward Ewen, "He's as good as…well," Epiphany peered disdainfully at Ewen, "As whatever he was before. So, aren't you going to ask her, Dr. Keenan?"

"Ask her?" Ewen felt dazed, like he was part of a play but he didn't know his lines. The harsh overhead lights were starting to give him a headache and he suddenly felt exhausted. Ewen swayed with fatigue and, all at once, Epiphany was standing right next to him taking his pulse.

"Hmmph," she said disparagingly, "You'd think a doctor would know better than to overdue his first few days back at work." She looked over at Elizabeth and was satisfied to see the nurse's previous anger at Ewen was forgotten and what now occupied its place was naked concern as she stared at his drawn face. The charge nurse gave a loud, infuriated sigh, "Lord knows, how any romancing would ever get done if it was left up to the two of you. Dr. Keenan," Epiphany bodily turned the psychiatrist toward the elevator doors which magically opened upon her approach, "You go home and go to bed. You need to rest up for your date with Nurse Webber." Ewen's eyes jumped to Epiphany's face, suspecting her of some cruel joke but she just smiled and said, "You'll pick her up at home, seven o'clock sharp on Friday evening."

After the doors closed upon the tired but bemusedly smiling countenance of Ewen Keenan, Epiphany turned her attention back to Elizabeth. The other nurse was diligently and speedily entering patient information into the computer while her own lips kept inadvertently curling up into a small, secretive smile.

"Nurse Webber, I don't want to have a bunch of data that has to be reentered because you can't keep your mind off what dress you're going to wear on your date." Elizabeth looked resentfully up at Epiphany but wisely didn't say anything as the head nurse continued, "So, I suggest you clock out and go find an appropriate dress for that skinny behind of yours."

Elizabeth quickly logged off the computer and darted out from behind the nurse's desk. For a brief moment it appeared as though she were contemplating hugging the older woman, but common sense won out. Instead, she quickly changed course and headed for the locker rooms.

Finding herself suddenly bereft of any fresh victims to torture, Epiphany let her eyes roam idly around the nursing hub. Off to her far right, at the juncture of the hallway leading to the north wing, she caught sight of a familiar figure. With a savage smile of pure joy on her face, Epiphany started making her ponderous way toward the unsuspecting custodian.

The ill fated man only became aware of her unwelcome advent when the music pouring from his ear buds was suddenly drowned out by the terrifying voice of the charge nurse barking the words, "Haven't I already shown you the proper way to mop the floor? It looks like somebody needs some remedial work in the fine art of custodial maintenance."


	3. Purple Passion

Purple Passion

Elizabeth paused in her nervous pacing across her bedroom floor and peered anxiously at her reflection in the mirror. She pulled at the bodice of the dress, making a minute adjustment to the lie of the fabric and tucked an errant strand of her thick, wavy auburn hair behind one shell-like ear.

"I hope he likes the dress," she murmured to herself uncertainly, running her hands down along the sleek chiffon material as it lay smoothly against her skin, dipping and curving everywhere that Elizabeth herself did.

The moment Elizabeth saw the deep aubergine purple of the silk dress shimmering softly in the subtle spotlight of the bow-fronted window of the boutique along Van Ness Avenue, she knew her search was over, even though she had left the hospital less than a quarter of an hour ago. She pushed open the door to the shop just as a thin, elegant woman was reaching over to flip the little cardboard sign hanging in the window from the open to closed side.

"I'm sorry," the middle-aged woman said, speaking rapidly with a tight smile which didn't manage to reach her tired eyes, "We're closing."

Elizabeth surprised herself by refusing to relinquish her grip on the curved brass door handle, "I'm interested in the dress in the window." She boldly stepped across the threshold and, as though mesmerized, walked over to the shop window where the dress was displayed upon a headless mannequin.

The shopkeeper gave an impatient sigh, "It's a beautiful dress," she said, looking skeptically at Elizabeth's anonymous outfit of jeans, t-shirt and sneakers, "But I'm not sure it's within your price range." Pointedly, she looked over Elizabeth's shoulder at the still open door, "Either way, I'm sure it will still be here tomorrow and you can come back and try it on in the morning. We open at ten."

Affronted, Elizabeth stared at the well-dressed women with instinctive dislike, "I'll take it," she said coldly, ignoring the clenched feeling in her stomach as she made such a foolhardy financial commitment, but she didn't care. She wasn't going to permit this rude woman to tell her what she could or couldn't afford.

Elizabeth reached into her purse and pulled out her well-worn wallet, "Here," she handed over her credit card and waited with bated breath while the dress was charged to her account without the card being declined.

The woman walked back to Elizabeth and returned her card while her dark eyes regarded the younger woman curiously. "You realize don't you that all our items are one of a kind and that the dress may not fit you."

Elizabeth shrugged, "You do alterations don't you, as part of your customer service? If the dress doesn't fit, I'll bring it back." Elizabeth wandered aimlessly around the tiny confines of the store as she waited for the woman to remove the gown from the mannequin and box it up. "Thank you," Elizabeth said quietly, as she accepted the package from the shopkeeper. She felt ashamed of her own behavior and even more worried that her momentary surge of arrogance might not be economically sustainable and that she might be forced to return the dress.

"You're very welcome, ma'am." The other woman spoke in a rote manner even though her deportment had unconsciously shifted from its initial brusqueness into addressing Elizabeth more respectfully, as was the due of a paying customer. "Come back soon," she called out to Elizabeth's departing back. Clutching her newly purchased precious cargo tightly to her chest, Elizabeth slipped out into the dark street.

Elizabeth didn't even look at the dress or, more importantly, the receipt for the dress, until she arrived home from work the following evening. After making sure that Aidan and Cameron were both safely asleep, she went into her bedroom and apprehensively opened up the dress box lying on the window seat. Elizabeth searched through the rustling tissue paper until she found the receipt. After taking a deep breath, she prepared to absorb the final dollar amount for her spontaneous acquisition, taxes included.

Elizabeth's shoulders sagged with relief as her eyes quickly scanned down to the bottom of the tiny slip of paper which had held her hostage to hope all through her trying day at work. "Just barely," she breathed out, hardly able to believe how closely the sum total of the dress matched the ultimate amount of money Elizabeth was willing to pay for it. In truth, it was an extravagance that she couldn't really afford on her sensible budget but she couldn't really regret her impulse to buy the dress.

"No more eating lunch out, no more yoga classes and," Elizabeth paused in the recitation of the depressing litany of small pleasures denied, which would be her lot for the next two months in order to pay the dress off, "And no more takeout mango-strawberry smoothies from Kelly's." That last deprivation made Elizabeth gulp convulsively. During the hot summer months, she relied on the delicious fruity concoctions in order to enable her to face the day. Straightening up, Elizabeth said decisively, "What's done is done," and she unfolded the delicate pink tissue paper covering her dress, "It's beautiful," she said, her eyes sparkling with that female prerogative of coveting objects of adornment, "Simply lovely."

Reaching into the crinkly nest of paper which protected the insubstantial material contained within, Elizabeth slowly pulled out the dress. Rising, she went to stand in front of the mirror, fanning the fabric out around her body. She gave a little experimental twirl and smiled happily as the dress obediently flared around her reflected self.

Elizabeth smoothed the bodice of the dress over her t-shirt and the smile abruptly evaporated to be replaced by two small indentations between her eyes as a sudden disagreeable realization occurred to her. Shaking her head, she murmured, "I better do it now."

Elizabeth swiftly turned away from the mirror and disappeared into her bathroom. She came out a few minutes later, now wearing the dress and once again posed in front of the mirror. Elizabeth spent quite some time perusing the fit of the dress with a critical eye. She turned sideways and then, with her back to the mirror, peered over her right shoulder to get an idea of what the dress looked like from the rear. Finally, when Elizabeth's scrupulous examination was completed, she allowed her expression to once again revert to the delighted smile she had worn earlier.

"It fits," she said, "It really fits." Then after several more pirouettes before the obliging mirror, she stopped and looked smugly at her reflection which returned the favor. "I knew it would." Elizabeth said as she tossed her hair and, with one final glance at her proud new possession, reluctantly turned back toward the bathroom. "I better take it off before something happens to it."

Actually, Elizabeth hadn't known that the dress would fit as well as it had. Despite her assured words to the saleswoman in the boutique, Elizabeth realized that if the dress didn't fit that there simply wouldn't be time to have alterations done. Instead, Elizabeth knew that she would have been forced to sit up late into the night trying to make the necessary alterations while somehow managing not to damage the fragile chiffon fabric.

Yet, now that she knew the dress did fit her perfectly, Elizabeth felt as light and airy as the very dress she had been so worried about. Now, she could go to bed and get a good night's sleep before her early shift the next morning. The timing of which would allow her plenty of time to come home and get ready for her long anticipated date with Ewen.

As Elizabeth slipped between the cool cotton of her bed sheets, she glanced over to where the dress lay neatly draped over a pale blue chaise lounge in the corner of her bedroom. Even obscured by the shadows of the room, an area where the light of Elizabeth's bedside lamp barely penetrated, the dress still appeared to glow gem-like and serene.

Once more Elizabeth stood before her mother's mirror. Once more she was wearing the dress. Yet, tonight everything was reinvented.

It had taken Elizabeth three plus hours to even get to the point of once again putting on the dress. First she had indulged herself in a long, relaxing bubble bath. Then she had manicured her nails, painting them a delicate shade of pink which would contrast nicely with the deeper purple hue of the dress. Afterward, there was the long arduous process of searching through her various accessories to find some items which would go well with the dress, since Elizabeth had no spare funds to buy anything new. Finally, once Elizabeth compiled everything together, she slowly dressed herself, taking care not to snag her freshly lacquered nails on her sheer stockings.

Now, as the mantelpiece clock ticked loudly in the silence of the old house, lacking as it did the usual noises emanating from two rambunctious boys, for Audrey had taken both Cam and Aiden for the weekend, time was incrementally marked. Ewen would be here at any moment.

Elizabeth turned her attention to her faithful mirror, she couldn't remember the last time she had really studied her appearance. Usually she just stopped briefly and checked her reflection to make sure she didn't have lipstick on her teeth or that her hair looked reasonable before dashing off to get the boys ready for their day before the entire family headed out the door.

Yet, tonight Elizabeth was determined to take her time as she examined her mirrored counterpart. Elizabeth smoothed back her hair and turned her head to examine the elegant chignon she had opted for rather than wearing her hair loose as she usually did. Elizabeth fingered one of the tendrils of hair she had permitted to dangle free and frame her face and, after a frowning at her reflection for a moment, she gave a small catlike smile of satisfaction.

The dress looked wonderful and it precisely matched her personal style of elegant simplicity. The dress was empire-waisted with a criss-crossed gathering of pleated fabric across the bodice and a single ruffled strap crossing over Elizabeth's right shoulder. Below the waist, the silken chiffon fabric flared out slightly. Beneath the insubstantial overlay of material, the shadowy outline of the inner layer of the dress was limned by the light from Elizabeth's bedside lamp. The deep rich plum of the dress perfectly complemented Elizabeth's milky-white skin.

Elizabeth didn't possess any shoes within the color spectrum of the dress. So, she had pulled out her true and tried black strap stiletto heels with a sprinkling of rhinestones gracing the straps which arched over the instep of her foot. The shoes felt alien to Elizabeth, for of late there was very little reason for her to wear them. So, now that she was fully dressed, Elizabeth was trying to compensate for both the added height and the unsteadiness the heels bestowed upon her. Elizabeth took a few tentative steps, first away from and then back toward the mirror, and was gratified to discover that she was actually managing to maintain her balance.

"Just like riding a bike,' Elizabeth airily assured her patiently agreeable image.

Focusing once more on her appearance, Elizabeth leaned in toward the mirror and scanned her face to check for any errors in the application of her makeup. She pursed her lips in an inward self-kiss and was satisfied to see the shell pink color holding steady.

Elizabeth flicked delightedly at her earrings, they were the perfect complement to her outfit. The earrings were a pair of amethyst and diamond chandelier drops which had been a present from her grandmother when she graduated from nursing school. Elizabeth loved the earrings but rarely had any occasion to wear them. Yet, when she opened up her jewelry box this evening, Elizabeth realized that they were preordained to become the finishing touch for her extensive toilette.

Elizabeth looked at her reflection waiting good-naturedly within the mirror for the final verdict on her appearance and giddily declared, "Dr. Keenan, eat your heart out!"

_**Author's note:**_ I have pictures of all the parts of Elizabeth's outfit. This story is also published under my Archive of Our Own Account at dot org under my same screen name (suerum) and in that version of the chapter I directly embedded pictures into the story.


	4. Nocturne

Nocturne

Elizabeth was still smiling triumphantly at her reflection when the doorbell suddenly chimed. For a moment, she was lost in a state of uncertainty and teetered dangerously on the unfamiliar height of her stilettos.

"Oh, he's here!" Elizabeth stood paralyzed in front of the mirror while her twin stared back, her blues eyes huge with apprehension as the realization that this date was actually happening appeared to strike the two of them simultaneously.

Elizabeth smoothed down the skirt of the dress and smiled weakly at the mirror, "I can do this," she lectured herself, "It's just a date, people go on them all the time."

Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth resolutely turned away from her doubting reflection. After gathering up a black beaded evening bag from her bed, she headed for the door, automatically flipping out the light switch as she left the room. Elizabeth held onto the hand rail as she slowly moved down the stairs because she didn't yet quite trust her balance. When she was still only halfway down the stairs, the doorbell rang again. It was a sharp demanding peal of sound which made Elizabeth feel suddenly flustered.

"Coming!" She called out, hastening her descent.

Elizabeth paused briefly at the foot of the stairs to regain her composure, and then walked determinedly to the front door and pulled it wide open. "Ewen," she said cheerfully, a bright smile of welcome upon her lips, "You're just in time! I'm sorry it took me so long to get to the door but I was having trouble with these shoes." Elizabeth laughed, "You men have no idea the work it takes to get dressed up…" Elizabeth's voice trailed off as she realized that Ewen hadn't uttered a single word but rather was just staring at Elizabeth with a stunned expression on his face. "Are you all right?" Elizabeth asked and when there was no response to her question, she reverted to her nurse persona and said sharply, "Ewen!"

Startled, Ewen shook his head as though to clear it, and the next time he looked at Elizabeth, his eyes were clear and focused, "You look lovely!"

Elizabeth colored slightly, "Thank you," she said almost shyly, adding as she examined Ewen's own outfit, "You look very…casual."

Ewen glanced down at his medium-blue poplin shirt of which the top two buttons were open. The casual shirt was tucked into a neat pair of dark blue chinos and on his feet were a pair of light blue deck shoes, sans socks. Ewen grinned sheepishly at Elizabeth and shook his head, "I guess we didn't coordinate on a dress code, eh? Still, I think I'd look silly in that little wisp of a thing," He pointed at Elizabeth's dress, "And I definitely couldn't squeeze into those shoes!"

Elizabeth laughed, she couldn't help herself. The vision of Ewen decked out in her purple dress, with his feet crammed into her heels, was so absurd that she felt her momentary fit of pique ebbing away.

"Should I change?" Elizabeth offered gamely as all her thoughts of a sophisticated and romantic evening started slipping away. They instead were quickly being replaced by visions of eating at Kelly's followed by a game of miniature golf which occasion qualified as less than a date and more as a typical Webber family night out.

"Don't you dare!" Ewen said vehemently, "One way or the other that dress and I are going out together this evening, even if we have to leave you home."

Elizabeth giggled and suddenly everything was all right again. She didn't care where they went or what they did, she just was happy to be going out with Ewen, nothing else mattered.

"Wherever the dress goes, I go." She answered Ewen flippantly.

Elizabeth turned around and pulled the front door closed, reflexively checking to see if it locked behind her. It was a habit she had formed after Jake's death and even tonight, with none of her loved ones left inside to protect, Elizabeth couldn't help making sure that the house was secure.

"Shall we?" Ewen offered Elizabeth his arm and together they walked down the path to the sidewalk where Ewen's car was parked.

The car was a light blue convertible and Elizabeth's hand instinctively reached for her hair as she thought of what the wind would do to her carefully sculpted chignon. Ewen caught Elizabeth's reaction out of the corner of his eye and he grabbed her hand and pulled it down.

"Relax," he said with easy confidence, "With the windows up, you won't even notice the wind but you'll still be able to feel fresh air and see the sky."

Once they were seated in the car, Ewen looked over at Elizabeth and asked, "All set?"

"Where are we going?" Elizabeth couldn't restrain her curiosity any longer. While the rather prolonged process of getting ready for the evening had consumed most of her attention, Elizabeth still found time to wonder about what Ewen had planned for their first date.

Ewen shook his head, "It's a surprise, I wanted at least one part of this date to not be under Epiphany's control."

Elizabeth smiled, "Do you think we would be going out tonight without her prodding?"

"Probably not tonight," Ewen admitted candidly, "But eventually, yes, absolutely."

It was a lovely summer evening and perfect weather to be riding in a convertible. As they drove out of Port Charles and headed north, Elizabeth relaxed. She lay her head back against the leather headrest and stared up at the sky. Occasionally, Elizabeth would turn her head to the right to try and catch glimpses of the lake through the trees and dense underbrush lining the road.

Ewen looked over at Elizabeth and smiled, "Happy?"

Elizabeth rolled her head and looking dreamily back at him, simply nodded her assent. Ewen reached his hand across the front console and clasped hers. His warm and gentle touch caused Elizabeth to close her eyes in secure contentment. She couldn't remember the last time that she had so thoroughly inhabited a specific moment in time without thinking about anything else, past or future, but merely reveling in the miraculous act of being.

Elizabeth opened her eyes, she felt disoriented and, for a moment, she panicked wondering where the boys were and where, for that matter, she was. Then before she could get anymore upset, Elizabeth felt a comforting pressure on her left hand and she turned her head to see Ewen smiling at her.

"You fell asleep," his tone was soothing as though he had intuited her perturbed state. "I'm not going to take it as a personal affront though. Instead, I'll just assume that you felt safe and comfortable enough to drift off.

"Oh," Elizabeth was mortified, her cheeks burned and she was grateful for the gathering darkness which prevented Ewen from seeing her face. "I'm sorry, Ewen. You're absolutely right, I haven't felt this relaxed since I can't remember when." Elizabeth stole a look at Ewen and was both relieved and irritated to see him grinning at her. "You're teasing me!"

Ewen laughed, "Guilty as charged! I will admit though that I learned a lot from watching you sleep."

Alarmed, Elizabeth fell into his trap, "Like what?" She attempted to sound nonchalant but didn't think she had succeeded.

Ewen didn't reply immediately. Instead, he concentrated on the road ahead which was now a dark unspooling ribbon tunneling between the trees with only the white center line to act as a guiding indicator.

"Ethan," Elizabeth reached over and prodded his shoulder with her forefinger. "What did you mean you learned a lot about me while I was sleeping?"

It was dark enough now that Elizabeth could only see Ewen's profile dimly outlined in the red glow of the dashboard lights. He looked vaguely saturnine and, for a brief moment, Elizabeth wondered what exactly she was doing in a car at night in the middle of nowhere with a man she didn't really know all that well.

Finally, Ethan responded, the tone of his voice was light and amused, "I discovered that you don't snore, you don't drool and you don't talk in your sleep. All admirable traits, I might add."

Elizabeth smiled her relief at his teasing answer. This time when she looked over at him, she saw no mysterious stranger, but only Ewen and chided herself for her fanciful imaginings.

"How do I know that the same applies to you?" Elizabeth responded pertly, "You might do all those things and even worse!"

Ewen sent Elizabeth a glance she was unable to interpret within the inadequately lit interior of the car. "Well, I guess you'll just have to find out." His voice was rough causing something deep inside Elizabeth to stir.

After that charged exchange they were both silent, each lost in their own thoughts. Elizabeth stared up at the black velvet of the sky, pinpricked by a myriad of stars she seldom got to see in Port Charles. The moon was serenely rising over the lake. Elizabeth caught the occasional glimpse of its limpid brilliance through gaps in the foliage.

After another quarter hour of driving, Ewen slowed down and began intently staring along the lakeside edge of the road. "Aha," he finally exclaimed in relieved triumph, "I've never been here before in the dark, I thought I might miss the turnoff."

Elizabeth squinted to make out the rough hewn wooden sign that marked a break in the trees and the start of a poorly maintained gravel road. "Moonlight Cove," she read out loud, "I've never heard of it."

"I'm glad," Ewen sounded smug, "I wanted to take you someplace you had never been before. Fortunately, for us Epiphany happened to pick a night that the moon was full or I would have had to save it for another time."

Something inside Elizabeth felt light and fizzy at Ewen's words even as they jounced and rattled over the uneven surface of what was little more than a rutted track. Ewen wanted to show her a special place, something that would be unique for the two of them. He also wanted the evening to be just right for them. Most of all, Ewen wanted to see her again. The absorption of so many wants, which matched her wants precisely, took Elizabeth's breath away.

Suddenly, the tree line ended and they were at the end of the road with nothing before them but a thin ridge of sandy beach and a long endless swath of moonlight-drenched water stretching into the invisible distance. Ewen switched off the engine, together they sat in silence with nothing but the ticking of the cooling motor to mark the passage of time.

"It makes me feel so insignificant," Elizabeth's voice was hushed with awe.

Ewen reached his arm across the space between their seats and wrapped it around her shoulders, "That is why it's important we see it together," he said, "So, we aren't overwhelmed by the indifferent beauty of this world of ours."

After another period of quietude, Ewen finally spoke, "I don't know about the poets but I can't subsist solely on a diet of moonlit vistas." He pulled his arm away from Elizabeth and smiled at her, "Shall we?"

Actually, Elizabeth could have sat there staring at the view, safe in Ewen's embrace for quite a while longer but she tilted her head in silent acquiescence and reluctantly reached for the door handle. Ewen was already out of the car and busy pulling items out of the trunk. Yet, when Elizabeth attempted to step out of the car, it became instantly apparent that her shoes weren't meant for walking on sand. Sighing, Elizabeth sat back upon the passenger seat. Regretfully, one after another, she slipped them off her feet and positioned them neatly together on the floorboards of the convertible.

Ewen walked by just as Elizabeth was once more standing upright and tentatively testing the ground to see how well her stocking feet would fare in the gritty sand. "Is it just me, or have you shrunken several inches since we left your house?"

Elizabeth glared at him, "You could have warned me!" She complained, "I do have more suitable clothes for a place like this."

Ewen shook his head adamantly, "Nope, I wanted the dress and the dress wanted me and we both knew that the shoes were a part of the package." Ewen stared significantly down at Elizabeth's almost bare feet, clearly visible in the bright moonlight. In a martyred tone, he said "Well, if you really feel you need to ditch the dress also, I guess I would understand."

Laughing, Ewen turned toward the beach, carrying the large picnic hamper he had retrieved from the trunk, while Elizabeth stared after him in frustration and uttered the only fit imprecation she could think of in the moment, "Men!"

Ewen quickly spread a plaid picnic blanket on the beach and placed the hamper upon it. He then came back to meet Elizabeth who was carefully wending her way from the car to the beach while trying to avoid stepping on any shards of wood or sharp rocks in her stocking feet.

"Allow me," he murmured and before Elizabeth could either assent or protest, she found herself swept up into Ewen's arms. "This reminds me of how we first met," he said conversationally while Elizabeth bashfully leaned her head into his chest, "Though you were a lot wetter and much quieter."

"I don't remember," Elizabeth whispered, not even trying to banter with him.

They had reached the blanket and Ewen knelt down and gently deposited Elizabeth upon it. He reached over and framed her face within both his hands, gently saying, "Then let me do the remembering for both of us."

Ewen's lips brushed Elizabeth's mouth with a delicate touch, little more than an impress of sensitive skin upon sensitive skin. Before Elizabeth could even register the kiss, Ewen was gone, sitting back upon his heels and waving an admonitory finger in her face. "Now, now Nurse Webber, we'll have none of that. Seducing a man on an empty stomach! Why, what would Nurse Johnson have to say about such forward behavior?"

Infuriated, Elizabeth glared at Ewen as she seriously thought about grabbing his wagging index finger and biting down on it. Yet, the unbearable thought of Ewen showing up at the hospital on Monday morning, with a bandaged finger, as he rattled on, to anyone who would listen, about infantile bite reflexes and a certain nurse's poor impulse control, enabled her to quickly quell that dangerous instinct.

Instead, she smiled sweetly at Ewen as she replied, "Well, if you worry so much about what Epiphany thinks about your love life maybe it means you're dating the wrong nurse." Relishing the appalled look on Ewen's face, Elizabeth scooted forward and coolly lifted the lid of the picnic basket, "You're not the only one who's starving, what exactly is there to eat in here?"

The over-sized picnic basket was packed full of an odd combination of both gourmet goodies and more prosaic edibles. It was clear that since Ewen was unsure about Elizabeth's taste in food, he had decided to provide a wide array of options. Elizabeth was extremely touched by his thoughtfulness.

She pulled out rounds of soft French cheese and water crackers, black olives swimming in brine, containers of crab and egg salad and melon wrapped in prosciutto. There were fresh strawberries, with whipped cream to dip them in, and delicious looking red velvet cupcakes that made Elizabeth's mouth water. The number of dishes seemed almost endless, until Elizabeth finally managed to reach the bottom of the hamper where she discovered china plates, silverware, glasses and damask napkins.

While Elizabeth was exploring the picnic basket, Ewen set up a small lantern he'd brought along before heading back to the car and returning with a cooler and another smaller, red plaid blanket draped over his shoulder. Ewen unceremoniously plopped down on the blanket next to Elizabeth. He casually reached across her for a cracker which he spread with cheese and then popped into his mouth.

"Spread all right?" He asked indistinctly while he chewed. The question was offhand. Yet, Ewen's eyes anxiously searched Elizabeth's face, which was illuminated by the combined light of the moon and the lantern, as he waited for her answer.

"It's perfect," she said honestly, this time it was Elizabeth who reached a hand over to Ewen's cheek and placed a light kiss on his lips. "Thank you," she whispered as she gently traced the contours of his face with the tip of her finger.

Ewen responded by grasping her hand, turning it palm upward, and kissing the delicate skin on the inside of Elizabeth's wrist. "You're welcome," he said, reaching for the cooler, "Red or white?" He held up a bottle of each.

They ate and drank and laughed and then repeated each individual activity several more times. Finally, when the plates were empty and the last dregs of the wine bottles were consumed, Ewen stood up and reached a hand down for Elizabeth. "Dance?" He asked insouciantly.

Laughing, Elizabeth readily grasped Ewen's hand to help her get upright. She swayed a little at the sudden change in position, the wine was clearly making itself felt. "Without music?" Elizabeth didn't really care whether there was or wasn't any music. Yet, she knew the script by heart from watching a thousand and one romantic films and was determined to get her part in the proceedings right.

"I thought you'd never ask," Ewen reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out his key chain. He pushed a button on a tiny remote and music, emanating from the excellent speakers in his car, swelled out into the night. The song was lush, an old-fashioned ballad by one of the famous singers of the torch era-Ella or Sarah. Elizabeth didn't know which, she only knew it was sublime.

Together they stepped off the blanket and headed for the water's edge where the sand was damp and hard packed. Without hesitation, Elizabeth stepped into the curvature of Ewen's arms and wrapped her own arms around his waist. For the second time that night, Elizabeth placed her cheek against the comforting solidity of Ewen's chest and closed her eyes.

Their dancing was little more than a mild swaying back and forth, each was content to simply be in the arms of the other. After the third song ended, and the fourth was starting, Ewen pushed away from Elizabeth and smiled at her instinctive mewl of protest.

"Hey," he said softly, tilting her face up to his, "I think we have some unfinished business from earlier this evening."

Elizabeth raised a single eyebrow and asked with a slight edge to her voice, "Are you sure you aren't going to break off for dessert, or to take a dip in the lake, or to call Epiphany and see if it's all right with her?"

Ewen laughed, "I deserved that but I promise you nothing short of a tsunami will be enough to distract me from you for the rest of the evening."

"Promises, promises," Elizabeth said as she reached up and pulled Ewen's head down toward her.

This time the kiss was wasn't in the least bit gentle. It was an urgent meshing of lips and mouths, tugging teeth and searching tongues, swollen full of unrestrained passion and want. They clung to one another, their bodies merging into a welter of planes and curves and pure unadulterated sensation. Elizabeth fisted her hand into Ewen's short curls and he drove his fingers into her hair, pulling out pins until it all hung in a messy mass of curls into which Ewen couldn't help but bury his nose as he attempted to wholly absorb the sweet fragrance emanating from them.

When they finally separated, they were both breathing heavily. They gazed into each other's eyes, their pupils were dilated with lust and longing. Elizabeth passed the back of her hand across her bruised and tingling lips and looked hesitantly up at Ewen who was staring down at her, his eyes hooded and unreadable in the pale moonlight.

"I…" Elizabeth began hesitantly, almost stammering in her uncertainty, "I don't want to mess this," she gestured widely to encompass the water and the moon and Ewen himself, "Whatever it is, I don't want to mess it up." She stared up at Ewen, her eyes pleading with him to understand.

"I've done that too often in my life, just jumped in rather than being sure that it's right for me and for the boys." Now Elizabeth was becoming more assured of herself and of what she needed to say. "They're the most important thing in my life and I can't keep making the same mistakes I've made in the past because it's not just me who pays, they do as well." Elizabeth looked out across the water and at the moon and then back up at Ewen who was listening intently to her impromptu speech.

"This, tonight, this place is amazing and everything was perfect-the food, the music, just everything. Honestly, it's the most romantic night of my life and I've loved every single minute of it. The problem is that it's not the real world and I have to make sure that we," again Elizabeth paused as if choosing her words carefully, "That is, if after I get done rambling on," Elizabeth gave a little self-deprecating laugh, "There even is still a we, that our relationship has to work in the real world as a nurse and a psychiatrist and a mother and her boys and not just as lovers living in a fairytale world of moonlight picnics and lovemaking on the beach."

The night was silent, Ewen had turned off the music when Elizabeth began speaking. Now the only ambient noise was the gentle susurration of the waves moving to and fro upon the beach. Ewen remained quiet after Elizabeth's spontaneous words. His lack of any kind of response made Elizabeth feel more and more certain that her speech had ruined everything which lay between them.

Elizabeth's qualms weren't just about the destruction of the evening. Although that on its own would be a bad enough loss because Elizabeth dearly wanted to remember every moment as a cherished memory and not just something that was perfect up until the point where she opened her mouth and wrecked everything.

No, what Elizabeth feared losing was far more valuable than just a single evening but rather represented the loss of the potential for a future with this special man who wasn't Jason or Lucky or Nicholas. Ewen was someone entirely separate from her past and to Elizabeth he represented hope. He wasn't a mistake to be made and remade until the end of life itself, but rather a proactive choice for living an entirely different life from any that Elizabeth had yet experienced. In her heart of hearts, Elizabeth fervently believed that a future with Ewen could be full of love and laughter, and even that most ethereal of qualities-trust.

"Elizabeth," she dreaded the sound of her name coming from his lips, dreaded the predictable words which would inevitably go something like, "It's been a lovely evening but I didn't intend for it to be anything more."

Still, she had her time to speak and it was only fair that she give Ewen the same courtesy even if Elizabeth didn't want to hear what he had to say. Just the awful thought of the ride back into Port Charles, with them both retreating into a chilly silence, was enough to make her feel like bursting into tears.

"Elizabeth," Ewen said again, "Are you listening to me?"

Elizabeth nodded miserably, "Yes," she whispered, her eyes downcast.

Ewen was having none of it, "Look at me," he commanded her and unwillingly Elizabeth raised her head and looked into his eyes. "I'm so proud of you." Ewen said.

Elizabeth stared at him in dumbfounded disbelief, "What…what did you say?"

Ewen patiently repeated himself, "I'm proud of you. Everything you said is entirely right. Whatever develops between us can't just be born of moonlight picnics. It has to encompass the mundane things of life, like our careers and grocery shopping and…and laundry. Though there is no law against including moonlight picnics in the mix as well!" Ewen laughed and so did Elizabeth, with a quick disbelieving mimicking of Ewen's chuckle as she tried to process his words and deal with the quiet throb of aroused hope she could feel pulsing through her heart.

"Naturally, the most important thing to you is your sons and I want to make them just as important to me." Ewen was speaking with a quiet sincerity, "So, I agree with you entirely. We will take it slowly and when the time is right, for both of us, we'll move to the next level." Ewen bent down and pressed a quick kiss on Elizabeth's lips, "Fair enough?"

"Fair enough," Elizabeth responded happily as she reached up and entwined her arms around Ewen's neck and returned the kiss with interest.

"Hold on there," he said laughing. Ewen unwrapped himself from her embrace, and stepped back from a slightly abashed Elizabeth, "Give a fellow a break, I'm only human."

Elizabeth lay with her head on Ewen's chest, it was a position which was rapidly becoming a favorite of hers. She was wrapped in the smaller red blanket to guard against the chill of the late night air. Ewen's hand was stroking Elizabeth's hair in a steady motion that was gradually lulling her to sleep.

They had agreed to spend the night together on the beach and to watch the sunrise in the morning. Elizabeth contentedly listened to the steady sound of Ewen's heart beating just a few inches away from her ear. She looked up at the moon which was still streaking a radiant trail across the dark surface of the lake water.

'Just this once,' Elizabeth thought to herself drowsily, 'Just this once, I'm not going to be practical and I'm going to allow myself to dream. Just this once.'


End file.
